"Woof!"

Hi guys, I have one last topic for you. I wanted to bring this up because I think that it is a huge problem here in New Mexico. Recently, a lot of press has been released about pit bull attacks. Just last week, a women from Truth or Consequences died when a pack of 4 pit bulls mauled her. One of the dogs was shot at the scene after it rushed an officer. The other three, last I heard, are expected to be put down if they are caught.

Why are these attacks allowed to continue? Do we have a larger number of dangerous breeds here or are we more lax about animal control? Is simply euthanizing the animals that attack enough to combat the problem?
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Hey everyone. I think that a lot of you have brought up some very good points thus far.

I guess what I'm trying to allude to is the idea of questioning "homeowner authority". Another example would be unruly or bully children. Every day, people are hurt due to things that are within others' control. When should government, if at all, step in to citizens' private lives?

I'm sorry for not just saying that...

I'd be interested to know your thoughts on the matter.

Book Suggestions?

Okay so throughout the semester I heard a ton of recommendations to books and references to other texts. So I wanted to know what readings you all have enjoyed and would suggest for the rest of us to read. Even if it's not related to our questioning authority theme, I'd love to hear your suggestions. Just tell me why you enjoyed and maybe a little on what it's about, but don't give away the story. :D I'm looking forward to seeing your responses!

Wrap Up

Hi, everyone!

To wrap up the class for our final blog week, I'd like to ask you about the class as a whole. What did you learn/gain from this course? What text did you like best/least? What did you like best overall? Least? Would you change anything about this class?

Have at it! :)

Questioning Education

I would first like to make it clear that this is not directed towards Kathryn. :)

People have said recently more than ever, education in the United States has gone down the tubes. High school dropout rates are on the rise. Teachers, grade school through high school, are being fired in front of their students. Standardized tests are showing little or no progress in individual students and in the school as a whole. These trends seem especially bad in New Mexico where the graduation rate in some schools is only 46% and test scores are some of the lowest in the nation. Even in college setting, we are told that programs are declining steadily. I've heard from more than one student in more than one department that education is a joke and that their department "sucks."

What is happening here? Are the standards used to hire education professionals lower than they used to be? Are students just becoming more apathetic? Are parents taking less responsibility for their children's education? Are these only products of a failing economy? Are we just being too critical? Or it is something entirely different? I will love to hear from you guys.

Medical Authority

Through talking to both my parents and hearing stories from various sources, I have heard of many stories in which a doctor has failed to diagnose a condition or know something that they should have found or known. An example is my mom having pneumonia (a long time ago now), but when she went into the doctor's office he simply told her she was fine and, when she went in for the second time in less than a week, prescribed her oral antibiotics (because her lung sounds were clear). However, she ended going to the ER because she felt so bad, and they had to put her on multiple strong IV antibiotics and she was in the hospital for several weeks. Another example is someone I know who was (properly) given a blood thinning drug, but the doctor did not recognize changes in his blood tests that were a simple side effect of the drug as being such (which could have potential to cause big problems if a doctor/medical professional is giving a drug they don't know very well).

That being said, when is it right to question the authority of a doctor or other medical professional? What defines when it is okay or not? When going to a doctor a person definitely has to put their trust in that doctor and his/her knowledge of medicine and respect them for that, but it is your body or that of a loved one that you may be concerned about. At what point or in what way would it become disrespectful of a doctor to question their authority, and how important of a consideration is this? What would you do if you thought a doctor was missing something important?

How should a doctor react if a person raises specific concerns about how they or their family member is being treated medically? How much should this depend on the manner in which they were approached, and should they allow it to change their treatment, particularly if the patient or family member brings up a valid point? How would you react, if you were a doctor?

I'm really curious to see what you guys think. I know I asked a lot of questions, so feel free to answer whichever ones you like.

Little Rebels

I came across something I thought was really interesting today and wanted to see what you all thought of it. It ties in with our class perfectly.

Phillip Nel released a children's book titled, "Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children's Literature," which encourages children to question authority. It caught my attention first of all because you normally don't see the words "children" and "radical" together. One of the reasons he wrote the book is because you read childhood stories before you've figured out who you are. This was interesting to me because it's like planting somewhat rebellious ideas in kids. And you know how kids are, they hold on to things for a long time. So my question or questions are: Should we teach our children to question authority from a young age? Do you think this book will encourage children to "rebel" against authority? If you had kids now would you allow them to read this book? Are there reasons why we should teach our children to obey rather than question? Along these same lines, if you did encourage your child to question authority, is there such a thing as taking it too far? For instance, if your child is continually acting out against his teacher at school, what would you say if he/she tried to justify it by saying they were just "questioning authority?" I'm interested to see what you all have to say!

Religious Authority

Hey everyone! :)

So after our presentation today, I started thinking about that tangent we went off on during the discussion about King Henry VIII and about how he questioned the Catholic Church and ultimately usurped power from it by creating his own religion. This has happened repeatedly throughout history where someone is unhappy with the way that a certain religion is handling things so they decide to go out and create/find a religion that is more suitable to their personal beliefs.

Is it ok to question the authority of a religious institution based on the simple fact that you yourself don't agree with it? Are there some examples where questioning the authority of a religious institution has gone too far? Are some religions harder to question? If there are, why do you think this is so? What do you think is the most interesting result to come about from questioning religious authority?

Also kind of relating to this topic, why do you think there are so many disagreements among people that center around religious beliefs and teachings?

I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts on this! Happy blogging! :D

Questioning Gone Awry

Hi, all!

I forgot that Cori dropped the course and we don't have anyone to post this week so I will go ahead and post something.

My question for you has to do with whether or not it is ever wrong to question authority. I'm thinking particularly of fringe theorists or extremists/zealots who question because they might be overly paranoid, who question just for the mere sake of questioning, or who question because they are in complete denial about facts (Holocaust Deniers come to mind here). Can you think of some examples where questioning authority would be dangerous and not worth the risks? Or do you think it should always be acceptable, no matter what?

Have at it, folks!